Southington Narrowly OKs Solar Array at Hatton Meadow

SOUTHINGTON — A split town council Monday upheld its previous approval of installing a solar panel array in a meadow near Hatton School.

The 5-4 vote came after 14 speakers spent more than an hour trying to persuade the council not to allow the panels to be built in the meadow, which residents said would be marred by 2 acres of solar equipment.

"It's a beautiful piece of land," Chad Valk said prior to the vote. His comments were echoed by most other speakers. They spoke about how the land was given to the town decades ago; that it's a lovely, undeveloped oasis that shouldn't be destroyed by a solar array.

Town Council Chairman Michael Riccio said the Hatton meadow site is the best place to have the solar panels, part of a much larger town effort to cut energy costs through conservation, new equipment and solar panels.

The school roof is too small to hold the number of panels needed and the roof is too old to be an efficient spot for panels, he said.

The panels will generate enough power by capturing sunlight and turning it into electricity to allow the Hatton School to lower annual energy bills by $42,500, Riccio said.

The three minority Democrats and Republican Stephanie Urillo voted to rescind the earlier approval to give the town more time to reconsider the placement of the solar panels.

Urillo, the head of the town's open space committee, said later her position on that committee led her to vote to rescind the approval.

Democrat Dawn Miceli, also a member of the open space committee, said the council should not only reverse its earlier backing of the energy plan but should vote to preserve Hatton Meadow from development.

Her statement drew applause from dozens of residents crammed into the council meeting room, but Riccio said the land was given to the town by the Hatton family for municipal use. That means the town has the option of using it in any way deemed best for the entire town, he said.

After the vote, dejected residents gathered in the hallway outside the chambers, talking about the council's decision.

"Right now, we don't have any option," said Jan Bruetsch, who asked the council to reconsider the solar array. "We spoke, but the council decided what it did."

Jeff Sommers, who lives across town and had been thinking of moving near the undeveloped meadow, said he probably will stop looking.

"It's a breathtaking meadow, with lots of wildlife," Sommers said. "But it is what it is. The council decided."